Bellzone recognizes their corporate responsibility to develop and follow appropriate process that will ensure the social development and environmental protection of the people and assets of the Republic of Guinea.
Bellzone
has adopted fundamental principles that form the foundation of Bellzone’s
socio-economic and environmental plans. These include;
- Principle 1: Bellzone supports and respects the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights
- Principle 2: Bellzone will make sure it is not complicit in human rights abuses
- Principle 3: Bellzone will uphold the rights to the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
- Principle 4: Bellzone will ensure the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour
- Principle 5: Bellzone will not employ child labour
- Principle 6: Bellzone will ensure there is no employment and occupational discrimination
- Principle 7: Bellzone will support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges
- Principle 8: Bellzone will undertake initiatives to promote environmental responsibility
- Principle 9: Bellzone will encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies
- Principle 10: Bellzone does not support corruption, extortion and bribery in any form
Bellzone is committed, in conjunction with the relevant authorities and legal requirements, to developing and implementing a socio-economic and environmental plan that will ensure that the project development and subsequent operations meet the founding principles above and the expectations of all relevant parties.
Socio-Economic Proposals and Management plans
As part of the socio-economic development strategy Bellzone will assess the feasibility of the following opportunities;
To conduct an Engineering Feasibility study on improve the road infrastructure in the areas local to the port, accommodation villages and mine site. It is envisaged that a combination of a new bitumen road and refurbishment of existing roads will be required. A maintenance road will follow the rail route where possible and will be open to third party access.
This will result in improved access from the inland area of Faranah to the southern coastal region of Guinea.
Bellzone proposes that the Kalia rail line be open to third party users on a negotiated tariff basis, provided that the iron ore production from the Bellzone deposit is not adversely affected.
Bellzone will develop training facilities and programmes that will train and prepare local persons who are interested in working in the Kalia mining, process plant, rail and port operations.
To support relevant and prominent NGO organizations, which are implementing regional or national programmes that will benefit the health and well-being of the population local to the Kalia mine, port and infrastructure. These programmes would be focused on improving and supporting existing initiatives in health and education.
To support, encourage and provide local business the opportunity to participate in the construction and operational activities of the various production and service support facilities.
- Land Tenure and Affected Communities
Understanding, managing and compensating affected communities will be critical to the project timelines and more importantly to the community perceptions of Bellzone. Bellzone will adopt a consultative approach to develop and implementing the Land Tenure and Community management plans. A committee, comprising of Bellzone, national, regional and local representatives, will be formed to facilitate this process. The committee will be responsible for developing and implementing the proposed management plans. This will ensure all affected parties are involved in the process.
A series of desktop studies have been conducted to attempt to identify the villages that could be potentially affected by the mine site, rail corridor and port development. These will form the basis of the future surveys, which are due to start as part of the Engineering Feasibility study.
Management plans will be developed for the following;
- Resettlement Management Plan
- Land Access and Tenure Management Plan
- Occupational Health and Safety Plan
- Emergency Response Management Plan
- Training and Development Management Plan
- Local Infrastructure Integration Management Plan
- Migrant Worker Health and Safety Management Plan
- Foreign Worker Ethnic and Religious Integration Management Plan
- Cultural and Heritage Management Plan
- Health and Education Management Plan
- Local Business Integration Plan
- Remuneration and Compensation Management Plan
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